For three years in a row, my mom drove relatives back to our hometown for the holidays. But every single relative who caught a ride with us ended up dead! The insurance company even sent a special investigator to see if it was murder for insurance money. They dug through our lives, past and present, but couldn't find anything shady. This year is the fourth year, and I decided my mom and I would just squeeze onto a crowded Amtrak train. I mean, three relatives had already died. Whoever wants to ride in that car can have it! But my boss at the company, Fiona, insisted on catching a ride with us to save on train fare. I brought up the previous deaths to warn her off. But my boss just said: "What era is this? Still believing in that superstitious nonsense?" "I'm riding in it! Let's see which Grim Reaper dares to take me!" Left with no choice, and not wanting to make things difficult for myself at work, I had to grit my teeth and let my mom drive the car onto the highway once again. The car had only been on the highway for a little while. My mom yelled at me, her voice thick with tears: "Son!! Don't look back! Don't look back!" I glanced in the rearview mirror and my hands and feet instantly turned ice-cold. My boss, who had just been snacking on sunflower seeds, now had her head blown open. The car hadn't even stopped, and she was already dead. ... My mom slammed on the brakes, and the car screeched to a halt on the shoulder. I pushed the door open, fell to my knees by the side of the road, and threw up violently. This is the fourth year, and the fourth person to die in the backseat of our family's car. The sound of sirens approached. Captain Sarah Vance from the Criminal Investigation Detachment was the first to step out of her car. The insurance investigator, Chloe, followed closely behind. Before the police could even say a word, Chloe leaned in to look inside the car. Then she turned around, pointed at me and my mom, and cursed: "Well, well, you've gotten bolder! Even serial insurance fraudsters don't have the psychological fortitude you two have!" Hearing this, my mom fell to her knees. "We're innocent! Ms. Chloe, it was really her who insisted on riding in this car!" "I was going to buy train tickets this year. But Ms. Fiona used her position as boss to pressure my son. We had to take her!" Chloe let out a cold laugh and pulled a stack of documents from her briefcase. "Save it!" "The previous three times, it was your Aunt Martha, Uncle Bob, and cousin David. Every time, before the incident, huge accidental death insurance policies were purchased." "This time, you also bought passenger liability insurance. That's another few million coming in, isn't it?" "We bought that as a package deal!" I rushed over to help my mom up. "Chloe, watch your mouth! Who would kill someone for that amount of money?" "That amount of money?" Chloe said coldly. "I've seen people kill their fathers and wives for money. Let alone an outsider?" Traffic on the highway backed up for miles. Many drivers rolled down their windows to rubberneck. "Holy crap, is that a headless corpse in the backseat?" "I heard it's murder for insurance money. This mother and son look so innocent, but they're ruthless." "Stay back, don't want to get blood on yourself." Hearing the gossip around her, Chloe got even more fired up. She turned to Captain Vance and said: "Captain Vance, is there even a need for an interrogation? This is a high-IQ serial murder case. It must be dealt with strictly!" Sarah ignored her, waiting for the forensics report. Not long after, the medical examiner brought out the report, his face looking terrible: "Captain Vance, the preliminary results are in." Everyone held their breath. The medical examiner pointed at my boss, Fiona's, neck: "The characteristics are exactly the same as the previous three cases. The head exploded from the inside; it wasn't smashed by an external force!" If it were one person, you could call it a bizarre disease. But four in a row, all in this same car? Police Captain Sarah stared at me with sharp eyes: "Mr. Miller, this is highly abnormal!" "Think carefully. Besides the fact that all four of them rode in your car, is there any other commonality? Don't miss any detail!" My mom was just busy breaking down and crying, swearing she'd never drive again! Who had the mind to think about this! My mind was also a mess. Before, Aunt Martha just happened to be going the same way, Uncle Bob wanted to hitch a ride to transport some goods, and cousin David was just plain lazy. This year, my boss Fiona was even worse. She did it to save two hundred bucks on a train ticket. Commonalities? They were all relatives or acquaintances? Fiona was sort of from the same hometown. They were all on the highway? Well, duh, you have to take the highway to get back to our hometown. Suddenly, I remembered something. "Speak!" I pointed at the car: "None of them ever paid a dime for the ride, but... they all fought to pay for gas at the rest stops." "Hah?!" Chloe scoffed. "Paying for gas? That's what you call a commonality?" She spread her hands, shouting to the people around: "Listen to this, everyone! What kind of reason is this? They felt bad about taking a free ride, so they helped pay for gas, and that became the cause of death?" The onlookers started pointing and whispering too. "Yeah, that's a bit of a stretch." "He probably couldn't make anything up, so he just threw out a random reason." My face flushed red, and I argued loudly: "But that's the only commonality! Besides that, what else was the same?" Sarah frowned, clearly unsatisfied with this answer either. She waved her hand, signaling her officers: "Check their social connections. See if this mother and son had any deep-seated grudges with the victims, especially Fiona, the one who died today." Several officers immediately dispersed to verify. While waiting, Chloe wasn't idle. She circled me, looking me up and down, her tone flirtatious: "Mr. Miller, I remember you're Fiona's secretary at the company, right?" "How does the saying go? When there's work, the secretary does it. When there's no work... hehe." I clenched my fists: "Chloe, if you spout any more nonsense, I'll rip your mouth off, believe it or not!" "Getting anxious?" Chloe curled her lip. "The little secretary wants to move up the ladder, but gets tired of being played with by the boss and wants to ditch her. So the little secretary teams up with his old mother to commit murder. This script makes perfect logical sense." "Bullshit!" My mom lunged forward, ready to fight Chloe. "My son is innocent! And that bastard always docked his performance bonuses. My son couldn't wait to stay away from her!" The police rushed forward and held my mom back. To prove myself, I took out my phone and pulled up the chat history with Fiona: "Captain Vance, look! This is our text history!" On the screen, Fiona had sent blocks of voice messages, and the text transcriptions read: "Hey Liam, still got an empty seat for the ride, right?" "Two hundred bucks for train fare is too expensive. Better save where we can." "I already told your mom, so don't be ungrateful." And I wasn't polite either. My replies were all: "Boss, it's really not convenient." "Our car is really cursed." Captain Sarah scrolled through it, and her expression softened slightly. At this time, the officers who went to investigate also ran back. "Captain Vance, we've checked. The previous three victims had an average relationship with the Miller family. Even though they liked to take advantage of small things, there were no major conflicts." Sarah said: "It seems the motive is indeed insufficient." Chloe snorted from the side: "You can know a person's face, but not their heart. What if this mother and son are psychopathic serial killers? Looking for a thrill?" "Shut up!" Sarah glared at her. "You need evidence to back up your words." Since the motive was insufficient, they had to focus on physical evidence. "Search the car! Turn it upside down!" With an order, five or six forensic technicians squeezed into the murder car. The seats were removed, the floor mats were pulled up, and even the spare tire in the trunk was hauled out. Chloe also got into the car, using a flashlight to inspect. Half an hour later. A pile of miscellaneous items was laid out on the side of the road: half a bag of sunflower seeds, two empty water bottles, an old throw pillow, and a few toll receipts. There were no explosives, nor any mechanisms. The car was just an ordinary car. Chloe stood in front of that pile of things, her face ashen. "Impossible! Absolutely impossible!" Sarah was also getting a headache and could only look at my mom: "Have you offended anyone in the past?" My mom shook her head: "Officer, I'm just a small business owner. I always greet people with a smile. How could I dare offend anyone?" I nodded in agreement: "Captain Vance, I'm just a nobody at the company. I cower when I see my boss Fiona, let alone making enemies." The clues were completely cut off. The scene reached an impasse. The insurance investigator, Chloe, suddenly stood up straight: "Fine, you can't find anything, right? Then let's recreate the scene!" She pointed at the car: "I don't believe in this curse! Captain Vance, I request to ride in this car myself, and let this mother and son drive again! Right on this highway!" "I will expose their tricks on the spot! Let's see if my head explodes too!" Sarah furrowed her brows: "Ms. Chloe, this is too risky. Setting aside the fact that this is evidence from a murder scene, what if..." "No what ifs!" Chloe interrupted. "This is the only way! I'll sit in the victim's seat, and I don't believe I won't catch them red-handed!" She turned to look at me and my mom: "Scared? If you have nothing to hide, what are you afraid of?" My mom turned pale with fear, clinging to the car door frame and refusing to let go: "I'm not going! The car eats people!" Chloe grabbed my mom by the collar and forcefully shoved her into the driver's seat: "Cut the crap! Not cooperating means you have a guilty conscience!" "Mom!" I rushed forward to help but was stopped by two police officers. Sarah pondered for a moment and finally nodded: "Fine, this is also a good way to draw the snake out of its hole. Since Ms. Chloe insists, let's try it." She quickly issued orders: "SWAT vehicles will covertly escort them 500 meters ahead and behind. Install body cameras inside the car for full monitoring. If there is any abnormality, intercept them immediately!" Ten minutes later, the convoy was back on the road. My mom sat in the driver's seat, shaking uncontrollably. I sat in the passenger seat, gripping my seatbelt. And Chloe sat swaggering in the backseat: the exact spot where Fiona had just been carried away from. "Tsk, Mrs. Miller, stop shaking your hands." Chloe sat with her legs crossed, an obnoxiously punchable look on her face. "Is the AC broken? Why is it only blowing hot air?" My mom didn't dare answer, not even daring to glance in the rearview mirror. Seeing no one was paying attention to her, Chloe took out her phone and started a livestream right there. "Hey guys, I'm currently in that head-exploding car! The one trending right now!" "Today I'm going to expose the truth for everyone, and see how this mother and son are faking ghosts and demons for insurance fraud!" She pointed the camera at my mom driving, and then at my pale face. "Look at how guilty they look! Folks, this is what you call refusing to shed a tear until you see the coffin!" "Send some gifts, and I'll find the hidden mechanism in this car and show it to everyone!" Tens of thousands of people flooded into the livestream instantly, and comments flew by. [What a warrior! Actually daring to ride in this car?] [It must be insurance fraud. How could a human head explode for no reason?] [This insurance lady is kind of pretty, risking it all for justice!] [I think this mother and son's eyes are shifty, they're definitely hiding something!] Chloe watched the comments and laughed even more arrogantly: "Once we finish this stretch of highway, I'm going to make sure you two rot in jail!" Ten minutes, twenty minutes, fifty minutes passed. The car drove steadily on the highway, and nothing happened. No explosion, no mechanisms, not even another car cutting us off. Chloe's vigilance slowly dropped, replaced by mockery. "You don't dare make a move as long as I'm here, right?" "Nothing happened this whole way. What does that prove? It proves that the previous 'accidents' were all man-made!" Right at this moment, my mom suddenly clutched her stomach. "No, I can't... I... I can't hold it..." I knew my mom had this old issue. Whenever she got nervous, she got the runs. "Hold it in!" Chloe scolded. "Trying to use this as an excuse to slip away?" "I really... I really can't! I'm going to crap my pants!" My mom squeezed her legs together, slammed on the gas, and the car turned into the rest stop 500 meters ahead. Chloe covered her nose: "Such bad luck! Dropping the ball at the crucial moment!" My mom pushed open the car door, covering her behind, and rushed frantically towards the public restroom. The cars behind us followed us in, and Captain Sarah got out with plainclothes officers. "What's the situation?" Sarah asked me, keeping her voice low. I pointed towards the restroom: "My mom has an upset stomach." Chloe squeezed out from the backseat. "Faking it, absolutely faking it." She sneered: "Trying to use a bathroom break to distract us? Or trying to destroy evidence in the bathroom?" With that, she followed her toward the restroom. Sarah reached out to stop her: "Ms. Chloe, don't go. We can just monitor the perimeter outside." "Monitor what perimeter?" Chloe shook off Sarah's hand. "Will you take responsibility if she runs away? I have to keep an eye on her and see what tricks she tries to pull!" Watching Chloe walk into the women's restroom, Sarah sighed helplessly, waving her hand to signal her subordinates to guard the restroom entrance and windows. "As long as she's still inside, she can't fly away." Sarah comforted me. "Mr. Miller, don't be too nervous. The innocent have nothing to fear." I was just about to nod when my phone suddenly vibrated. Taking it out, it was a text from an unknown number. The content was only three short words: [Pay for gas.] A chill ran through my entire body. Who sent this? Why pay for gas? We hadn't even gotten gas! I handed the phone to Sarah: "Captain Vance, look at this..." Sarah took the phone, and the moment she saw the content, her expression changed drastically. "Something's wrong!" She yelled into her earpiece: "Everyone rush in! Now!" Before I could even react, several SWAT officers had already kicked open the main door of the women's restroom. However, the expected confrontation didn't happen. A few seconds later, a voice came through the walkie-talkie: "Captain Vance, only Mrs. Miller is in the restroom... she's currently occupying a stall." Sarah was stunned: "Where is Chloe? Could a living, breathing person just fly away?!" She strode into the restroom, and I followed, forgetting about the whole gender-separation thing. Inside the women's restroom, only my mom was there. Chloe had vanished into thin air. "Lock down the rest stop! Search every inch!" Sarah roared. The entire rest stop sprang into action. My mom and I stood waiting in place, watching the police turn over every corner. The green belts, the supermarket shelves, the undercarriage of the large semi-trucks parked nearby... Nothing. Absolutely nothing! Just as everyone was nearing despair, a terrified scream came from behind the gas station. "Here! Captain Vance! Over here!" Everyone swarmed over. It was the large dumpster behind the gas station. A pair of feet wearing dress shoes was sticking out, still twitching slightly. The upper half of the body was buried in the garbage pile. Two police officers rushed up to pull her out. "One, two, heave!" As the body was pulled out, my mom and I screamed! Chloe's head had exploded! The severed stump at her neck was a bloody mess! And beside her corpse was a crumpled gas station receipt. Police Captain Sarah picked up the receipt, looked at it just once, and her pupils dilated in shock. Then she turned around, and addressed the crowd: "I know why the heads of the people who hitched a ride in your car all exploded!" Sarah pinched the oil-stained receipt, staring sharply at me and my mom. "Two hundred dollars. Chloe wanted to fill up this car with gas before she died." My mom was shaking all over in fear, snot and tears covering her face, completely failing to understand what Sarah was saying. "Officer... so what if she pumped gas? We didn't ask her to!" Sarah gave a cold laugh, her gaze locking onto us. "Pretending? Keep pretending." "I also had someone check the gas records of the previous three victims for those years." "Aunt Martha, pumped $150." "Uncle Bob, feeling guilty about hitching a ride and transporting goods, pumped $300." "Cousin David, pumped $200." I still didn't understand: "Captain Vance, what do you mean?" Sarah slapped the receipt against the hood, making a sharp sound. "Is the meaning still not obvious enough? You mother and son thought the relatives didn't give enough for gas money!" "Especially you, the mother. Mrs. Miller is famously stingy. Did you think that with gas prices rising, this little bit of money was like paying off beggars?" "So you rigged the car!" This deduction was practically flawless—if you ignored the lack of logic. I was trembling with anger, pointing at Sarah's nose: "Are you crazy? Who would kill someone over a few hundred dollars in gas money? Let alone serial murder?" "And on the highway? Do we have a death wish?" Sarah slapped my hand away, her eyes dark. "Of course, normal people can't understand the logic of psychopathic killers." "In this world, I've seen plenty of cases where people murder for a dollar, or because of a single look!" My mom was wailing loudly over there: "We're innocent! I was using the toilet at the time! And Chloe went into the bathroom with me! When did she even pump gas?" "Shut up!" Sarah roared. At this moment, the officer responsible for retrieving the surveillance footage ran back, sweating profusely. "Captain Vance... the security cameras at the rest stop are completely broken." The surroundings instantly fell dead silent. They didn't break earlier, they didn't break later. They had to break precisely at this critical moment. So, relying solely on deduction clearly couldn't convict us. Sarah had us brought back to the interrogation room at the Highway Patrol station. We were locked up for a full twenty-four hours. I was interrogated non-stop, asked everything from whether I abused small animals in elementary school to whether I had recently purchased chemical reagents. My mom had it even worse. She was questioned until she almost passed out several times, just repeating those same few sentences over and over: "I didn't kill anyone." "I really didn't kill anyone." "That car is truly cursed." By the evening of the next day, the door to the interrogation room opened. Sarah walked in, sporting two huge dark circles under her eyes, holding a report, her face looking defeated. She threw the report onto the table. The only clue was the text message sent to my phone: [Pay for gas.] The tech department traced that number. It was a disconnected number. So they could only make a decision that went against their instincts. "Mrs. Miller, Mr. Miller. Based on the current evidence, we cannot detain you." "However, you remain prime suspects... you cannot leave our surveillance area." Hearing that we could leave, my mom's legs went weak, and she almost fell to her knees: "Thank you, righteous judge! Thank you, honorable judge!" I supported my mom, but my heart felt no relief whatsoever. "Captain Vance, then how do we get back to our hometown? It's already the 28th of the lunar month." Sarah stared at me: "How do you want to get back?" I gritted my teeth: "Take the train. Even if it's standing room only, we'll stand the whole way back." "That car... we don't want it anymore. You guys keep it." This car has claimed four lives in a row. Who would dare drive it? Sarah, however, narrowed her eyes. It was the look she got when she saw her opponent reveal a flaw. "No. You must drive the car away." "And..." Her tone became eerie, "I also need to head in that direction for some business." "Since you're too scared to drive, I will." "I want to see if this car really specializes in eating people who don't want to live." I looked at her in horror: "Captain Vance, don't mess around! That car is truly..." Sarah took the car key from her pocket and tossed it in her hand. "What? Afraid I'll die in the car, and you won't be able to escape involvement?" "Don't worry, I have a tough life." "If, under these circumstances, my head also explodes, then consider it me dying in the line of duty." "If it's your heads that explode..." "Then perfect, the case is solved."
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